Atopic dermatitis, a chronic recurrent pruritic dermatitis, commonly occurs in infants and children groups and is a disease accompanied by pruritus, dry skin or eczema characteristic in patients and their families. Typical symptoms of atopic dermatitis appears in hand, scalp, face, neck, elbows, knees, etc.; the skin becomes very dry, the itching and inflammation appears on the skin, the skin is exfoliated like the scales and when the scratching in the skin is badly severe, phenomenon of lichenification making deep wrinkle in skin appears. The direct cause of the occurrence of atopic dermatitis has been not yet clearly revealed. Therefore, the studies for atopic dermatitis have been conducted continuously. In order to treat these atopic dermatitis, conventionally, there have been proposed materials including ceramides, linoleic acid, vegetable oil or mineral oil, steroid preparations such as hydrocortisone, and antibacterial and anti-inflammatory materials thereof. However, steroids may inhibit skin growth or cause side effects, thereby leading to adverse effects, and urea peroxide may lead to over-stimulation of the skin. Antibiotics such as the antihistamine etc. may potentially cause side effects of bacteria resistance and photosensitivity and when antibiotics are applied to the skin for a long time, there is a possibility to cause side effects of telangiectasia and/or the thickness increase or expansion of the stratum corneum. On the other hand, gamma-linolenic acid which is used a lot in recent for alleviating atopic dermatitis is easily oxidized. Thus, gamma-linoleic acid has not only a low stability but also a relatively strong skin irritating so that It is difficult to apply to sensitive skin.
EC-18, as a kind of monoacetyldiglyceride compounds, was separated or extracted from the natural deer antler. It is known that EC-18 increases survivability ratio of animals in sepsis animal model experiment using cecal-ligation-puncture, and shows no-toxicity in GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) toxicity test. However, the effect of monoacetyldiacylglycerol compounds including EC-18 is not known or disclosed in atopic dermatitis. Thus the present inventors aimed to find a compound derived from natural products or a novel compound for the prevention or treatment of atopic dermatitis and found that the monoacetyldiacylglycerol compound inhibits secretion of IL-4 and IgE and can be used to prevent or treat atopic dermatitis.